HR Business Partner

Barry Callebaut AG; Banbury; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global chocolate manufacturer is seeking an HR Business Partner to align people strategies with business goals in Banbury, UK. Responsibilities include managing Employee Relations, driving Talent Management initiatives, and leading Change Management efforts. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of HR experience, a degree with CIPD Level 5, and excellent knowledge of UK labor laws. Opportunities for professional development are available in this hybrid working role.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5+ years of experience within HR, ideally in Commercial/B2B/FMCG.
• Excellent knowledge of UK legislation in employee relations, including union experience.
• Experience leading organisational change and performance management.

Responsibilities

• Provide advice on Employee Relations to line managers.
• Champion talent and performance management processes.
• Support transformation initiatives with workforce impact insights.

Skills

Employee Relations

Talent Management

Change Management

Analytical skills

Communication

Education

Degree and minimum CIPD Level 5

Tools

SAP

ServiceNow

SuccessFactors

Microsoft Office

Job description

The HR Business Partner will support UK functional leaders in all people-related processes, ensuring compliance with legislation and driving engagement strategies to achieve organizational goals. Responsible for Employee Relations, Talent Management, Reward, Learning, and core HR processes, the role reports to the HR Director UKI and collaborates with global HR teams. You will play a key role in creating a positive and high-performing culture across both factory and commercial teams, partnering closely with operational leaders to ensure that our people strategies drive productivity, capability and engagement on site. This role offers excellent development opportunities for a driven HR professional to broaden their exposure across both manufacturing and commercial environments, with potential to progress into more senior HR or regional roles within the wider Barry Callebaut organization. We currently operate a home/office working pattern. For this role the expectation is that you will be in the office a minimum of 3 days a week, or more if required.

Key Responsibilities

• Employee Relations: Provide pragmatic, business-focused ER advice to line managers; proactively identify trends; and work to create a culture of trust, fairness and open communication across the organisation.
• Talent & Performance Management: you will champion culture and key talent processes (performance management, engagement, development, DEI) and lead on talent identification and succession planning for critical roles, ensuring robust development pipelines and readiness for future growth.
• Change Management: Support transformation initiatives by providing insight on workforce impacts, facilitating consultation, and ensuring timely and effective communication with employees and union partners.
• Organization Design: Lead organisation reviews to align capability, headcount and structure with operational efficiency and business growth priorities.
• Learning: working with leaders and individuals you will identify learning needs and solutions.
• Reward: utilising the global reward framework you will work with leaders to ensure compensation is performance related, fair and competitive.
• Core HR Team processes – we are a small team, so you will take ownership of a share of core activities from benefits to supporting our external partners engagement, and you will also work alongside our Global Business HR Service, contributing to continuous improvement of HR processes, reporting and data accuracy.

Qualifications

• Degree and minimum CIPD Level 5 preferable.
• Minimum 5+ years of experience within HR, ideally within Commercial/B2B/FMCG organisations.
• Experience of leading organisational/culture change projects and talent/performance management.
• Excellent knowledge of the UK legislation and proven track record in employee relations, including union experience.
• Strong analytical and data driven approach, able to interpret HR Metrics and provide insight to leaders.
• Experience with SAP & HR systems (ServiceNow/SuccessFactors/Atoss preferred).
• Good knowledge of Microsoft suite.
• Strong customer focus with excellent relationship-building skills.
• Effective multitasking, prioritization, and time management abilities.
• Proven problem-solving, influencing, and communication skills with solid stakeholder management.
• Able to challenge constructively and influence at all levels.
• Drives culture, engagement, and employee development with integrity and resilience.
• Passionate about creating a positive employee experience and fostering inclusion, performance, and continuous improvement.
• Adaptable, self‑motivated team player who thrives in change.

At Barry Callebaut, we are on a journey to transform the cocoa and chocolate industry. As the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, our actions truly shape the future of our industry. We are a business‑to‑business company, serving the entire food sector, from the cocoa bean to the finest chocolate product. We are a company with a purpose, we believe in doing well by doing good and reinvesting in the communities we operate. We have a long‑standing commitment to sustainability and our goal is to shape a sustainable cocoa and chocolate future. We are headquartered in Zurich, and have more than 12,000 passionate Employees working in more than 40 countries worldwide. We are very proud of who we are and what we do. And of course, we are always looking for talented people to help us have a positive impact on our industry and beyond!